Dr. Keiffer J. Mitchell Sr.
Dr. Keiffer J. Mitchell Sr., a Baltimore physician, died on August 18 at the age of 73. According to his son, Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., he passed surrounded by family at Medstar Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore after a brief illness.
“All of Baltimore mourns the loss of a member of our legendary civil rights family, the Mitchells. Dr. Keiffer Mitchell Sr., the son of the 101st Senator and the father of former City Councilman and former Delegate Keiffer Mitchell Jr., was a kind man and loving father. My prayers are with the entire Mitchell family,” Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.
Mitchell was born in Baltimore to Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., a longtime NAACP lobbyist and leading figure in the civil rights movement, and Juanita Jackson Mitchell, Esq., a NAACP activist and the first Black female admitted to practice law in the state of Maryland. She also was the daughter of famed Baltimore NAACP leader Dr. Lillie May Carroll Jackson. His uncle, the late Parren J. Mitchell, was the first Black member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland.
As a youth, Dr. Mitchell attended Baltimore City public schools. In September 1954, he was the first Black student to integrate Gwynn Falls Junior High School. Residents of the neighborhood organized a protest that at times became violent. He went on to attend the prestigious Baltimore City College which he graduated from in 1959. He then went on to Lincoln University in Oxford, PA where he earned a degree in 1964. Next he would attend Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN where he would obtain his M.D in 1967. After medical school he served as an intern and resident at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in gastroenterology from 1967-1971. Upon completion of his internship and residency he concluded his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Keiffer J. Mitchell Sr. grew up on the 1200 block of Druid Hill Ave. and practiced medicine on that very same block for 40 years. He repeatedly rejected opportunities to move his medical practice out of the neighborhood and put an emphasis of giving quality care to elderly patients. A lifelong Baltimorean, Dr. Mitchell lived in Guilford until his passing. He was an enthusiastic painter, avid photographer and devoted family man. He leaves behind a wife of 49 years, Nannette Kindle Mitchell, children, Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., Kelly Mitchell and Kathleen Mitchell, grandchildren, Jade Newhouse, Kindle Mitchell, Marquis Newhouse, Keiffer J. Mitchell III, and a daughter in-law, Nicole Kramer Mitchell.
The memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday, September 23 at Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church located at Dolphin and Etting Streets.